NASCAR team notes as the Sprint Cup Series stays in a short-track state of mind

Heading from Bristol to the oldest track on the circuit, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway:

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

This week: Gordon leads all active drivers with seven victories at Martinsville, but he hasn’t won there since the fall race in 2005. His record in 32 career starts is impressive — 20 top-five finishes and 26 top-10s. He finished second in this race in 2008 and fourth last fall. Gordon takes a 76-point lead into Sunday’s race. “You must have a lot of patience here,” Gordon said. “Just to run a single lap by yourself, you have to be patient and not overdrive the car. And you certainly need to be more patient when it comes to traffic. From an observer’s vantage point, it’s probably just one constant flow of cars. But for me, it’s just that one, two or three cars ahead of me that I’m focusing on. You get into such a rhythm and such a zone here — it’s amazing how you block out how much traffic there really is. I don’t even think about there being 40 cars on the track.”

Last week: Gordon was buoyed by his fourth-place finish at Bristol, giving him confidence his team has regained its short-track expertise. It was his 250th career top-five finish.

Etc.: Gordon believes qualifying at Martinsville is important because of pit stall selection. “There are only a handful of pit stalls here worth having,” he said. “Pit stall No. 1 is the obvious choice, and there is another one on the front straightaway that has an opening (in front of the stall). You can also make pit stall No. 2 work, but you are always going to be concerned about the car pitted ahead of you. I think a lot of our race success can be attributed to our qualifying success. It’s certainly not impossible to get a win or a good finish when starting outside the front row.”

Kurt Busch, No. 2 Dodge, Penske Racing

This week: Busch’s only victory at Martinsville was in the 2002 fall race. It was one of his two top-five finishes and four top-10s in 17 starts there. He was 33rd in this race last year and 36th in the return visit. “It was a pretty long learning curve for me to get the hang of racing at Martinsville,” Busch said. “It’s such a demanding track on the driver and especially the equipment. It’s one of the toughest tracks to find your own space because there are so many cars and somebody is always on top of you. It’s hard to protect your race car. That’s the thing you have to do at Martinsville — know you’re in it for 500 laps and that you can’t get into too big of a hurry in the early portions of the race because anything can happen.”

Last week: Busch is coming off an 11th-place finish at Bristol.

Etc.: Busch’s team tested at “Little Rock,” a Martinsville-shaped speedway that has been built in Rockingham, N.C., next to the big track at that site. “After seeing what we had at Bristol, we know that we need to be better prepared for Martinsville this weekend, so here we are,” Busch said while taking a lunch break Tuesday. “We know we have to work on our short-track qualifying packages, and we have to get our cars turning better during the races.”

Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing

This week: Bowyer has never finished in the top five at Martinsville but has three top-10 finishes in six starts there, including 10th last spring and ninth in the fall. “We’ve got to get better at Martinsville,” he said. “We’ve had a huge improvement over the last couple of years. It wasn’t one of my best tracks when I was starting out. I’d never seen a place like that before. I’m still learning there, but we’ve improved tremendously. We just need to work on finding a little more speed. It’s a short track, but it’s not like any other short track you’ve ever been to. It goes against everything your tendencies tell you to do. You have to back the corner up. You have to let the car roll way around the corner before you get back on the gas. Your tendencies are to get in the corner as deep as you can and get back on the throttle as fast as possible. Those are two things that are catastrophic there, so you’ve got to discipline yourself and stay disciplined throughout the race.”

Last week: Bowyer is coming off an unlucky 13th-place finish at Bristol.

Etc.:  Bowyer believes the new car in NASCAR has made it more difficult at tracks like Martinsville. “I think it’s even harder to pass there now,” Bowyer said. “The new car is pretty tough. You can beat and bang with it more than you could with the old car. The fenders were pretty weak with the old car. You had to be very careful not to fold them in or you’d find yourself in trouble. Now, you can really race a lot harder, and that makes it a little more difficult to gain positions.”

Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing

This week: Busch is hoping to score his first victory at Martinsville, where he has three top-five finishes and four top-10s in eight starts. He had a rough time there last year — he was 38th last spring and 29th last fall. Busch is another driver who tested at “Little Rock” in North Carolina to prepare for this weekend’s race. “It’s got real long straightaways and it’s real hard on brakes, so we can go there and test our brakes,” he said. “Last year at Martinsville we had brake issues at both races — the first race locking up rear brakes and eventually breaking the rear gear and then the second race overheating the front brakes and popping right-front beads. We went and tested at Little Rock to try to get our brakes squared away and we went there and we found out how to pop right-front beads over and over. We fixed that problem. We used to pop them in 46 to 50 laps, and now we can go 80 laps straight and not see a darn issue. We feel like we’ve got that fixed. Also, you can work on a little bit of setup stuff. I mean, there the track’s a little too rough and it’s got a little too much banking so it’s not an exact correlation to what Martinsville is, but it’s close enough that it’s the closest we’ve got. That’s why we go there.”

Last week: Busch dominated Sunday’s Food City 500, leading five times for 378 of the 503 laps to finish ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin. It was Busch’s 14th Cup victory in 155 Cup starts.

Etc.: Busch’s favorite racing comes in radio-controlled (RC) cars. “As a matter of fact, I started in RC (radio-controlled) racing as a kid, just building those things and racing those things,” Busch said. “Funny thing is that there’s a new RC track that just opened up in the Charlotte area, and I went there on Wednesday night because they have races on Wednesday night and I was hooked. I couldn’t sleep Wednesday night because I was so excited about building my new car and getting ready and going back and RC racing that I couldn’t sleep. It was like the Daytona 500 was the next day, but I slept fine for the Daytona 500.”

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing

This week: Edwards has only one top-five finish (third last fall) and two top-10 finishes in nine Martinsville starts. He was ninth in this race last year. “I have three goals for 2009: win a championship, win a road-course race and win at Martinsville,” Edwards said. “These are my three goals. We have run better and better each time we have gone to Martinsville. We finished third last time. This is the most I have looked forward to going there to continue to get better. It has been one of the most challenging and toughest tracks for me.”

Last week: Edwards was 15th at Bristol.

Etc.: Edwards will drive RK-587, the same car he drove at Martinsville last fall. “Statistically speaking, Martinsville has been a tough track for the team, but over the past few races I have become fonder of Martinsville,” crew chief Bob Osborne said. “It has taken us a long time to develop a setup that works fairly well, and we’ve had some decent runs there. As everyone knows, Martinsville can bite at any moment, but I feel we can be competitive there. I am looking for a good run this weekend. We’ve had some disappointing races this year, and we have to turn that around if we’re going to stay in contention for the championship.”

Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Dodge, Richard Petty Motorsports

This week: Kahne has had his troubles at Martinsville — no wins, one top-five finish and two top-10s in 10 starts. He was 17th in this race last spring and 33rd last fall. “As a driver, I’ve learned a lot about racing here, but I also think that my car has gotten better at this track,” Kahne said. “The first time I was here, I could barely go around it. I wasn’t even close to qualifying well here. The next year, I was better and the car drove 10 times better than the year before and we ran second. It’s a tough track, and I think that some people pick this track up quicker than others, but I also think that you need a car with a good setup to win a race here.”

Last week: Kahne rounded out the top five at Bristol. “We’ve made some really good gains in the last two weeks,” Kahne said. “The first three races, I felt like we were on the edge and not sure really which way we were going. I’m real happy with where our points are right now (sixth). Our whole team has done a great job just getting the most points we could every race.”

Etc.: Kahne has improved his finish in every race this season. After starting out with a 29th-place finish in the season opener at Daytona, Kahne has finished 12th, 11th, seventh and fifth in the last four races.

Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing

This week: Stewart is a two-time Martinsville winner, including this race in 2006. Those are two of his seven top-five finishes and 11 top-10s in 20 starts. He was fifth here last spring and 26th last fall.

Last week: Stewart finished 17th at Bristol.

Etc.: Stewart compares team ownership to a popular board game. “It’s like Monopoly money,” Stewart said. “I don’t see the money, I just see the numbers on the paper, and you almost treat it like Monopoly money. If you’re in the plus, you’re good, and if you’re in the minus, you’re bad. I don’t see the bills coming in and going out. Obviously, I’m updated in the meetings where we are at with the finances, but there’s not been that one big shocker yet that has happened in five weeks at this point. I think that’s a great thing. I’m glad there’s not been that one thing but I’m sure it’s going to happen. I don’t know when it’s going to be. I think that’s been a credit to Bobby Hutchens and Darian (Grubb) and Tony Gibson. Since they’ve all been there, it’s run just like clockwork so far, and it’s run exactly the way we thought it would and hoped it would.”

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing

This week: The native Virginian won this race last year, when he led 82 laps. He was fifth last fall. Those are two of his four top-five finishes and six top-10s in seven starts.

Last week: Hamlin’s second-place finish at Bristol was right on teammate Kyle Busch’s bumper. “If I could’ve got to him, I definitely would have raced him,” Hamlin said. “I just couldn’t get to him right there. He made one slip-up in (turns) three and four and it allowed us to get to him, but we just were sliding everywhere. Whenever you cycle these tires they’re extremely hard to hang onto, so I was just busy trying to defend myself from Jimmie (Johnson). We had a long-run car. We didn’t have that short-run car. It’s somewhat redemption, but we feel like we deserve to be in victory lane and hopefully we’ll get that done next week.”

Etc.: Hamlin is concerned about how his car drives in qualifying. “We have to figure out how to go fast,” Hamlin said. “I don’t know whether it’s just setting up our cars to just qualify and that’s it. … We qualify bad every week.”

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsport

This week: Although Jeff Gordon is the active career wins leader, Johnson has been “Mr. Martinsville” of late with five victories, including last October. He was fourth in this race last spring. His five wins account for half of his 10 top-five finishes there, and he has 13 top-10s in 14 starts. “It means a lot,” Johnson said of performing well at Martinsville. “It is such a difficult track and a challenging track. Not only (do) you have to deal with frustration and understand that track, I don’t think you can grow up racing on any surface or any level racing in the country and be ready for that track. My first time there I tested, and I think we tested twice because the first test there went so bad. The second time we came back for the race and nothing worked. When I came back the second time and Tony Stewart was lapping me, I followed him and learned the rhythm and it clicked in my brain and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s how you do it.’ I salvaged a decent day out of that run, and I’ve been getting better and better each time I’ve been there. I really enjoy the track. It’s such a quirky, odd track that we run at. When friends ask me which one of the tracks they should go watch at, I always tell them Martinsville. I tell them Bristol. I tell them Richmond. Somewhere where you have good short-track racing and you can get up close to the race cars and action.”

Last week: Johnson’s third-place finish was another sign of improvement for the three-time defending Cup champion.

Etc.: Johnson is impressed that The Racer’s Group (TRG) has been able to make the top 35 in points after the first five races of the season. David Gilliland is the driver for team owner Kevin Buckler’s team, which has just five paid employees. “Those guys really are racers, and their acronym really means something,” Johnson said of TRG. “I don’t think I have really raced against them in the Rolex stuff, but I have seen their equipment around for years and they have always been competitive and dominant in whatever division they race in. They came in to the Truck Series and won, and now they are on the Cup side. They have a good core base, even though it isn’t a lot of guys. They are really racers at heart and out there doing what they can. I have a lot of respect for what they are doing. I think today’s world has hurt some teams and has forced some mergers, but at the same time, it has allowed other teams an opportunity to come in to our sport. It is nice to see some good things come out of the tough economy and the tough market we have right now.”

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing

This week: Kenseth has just two top-five finishes and six top-10s in 18 Martinsville starts. He was 30th last spring and eighth last fall.

Last week: Kenseth finished 33rd, five laps down to the winner. “Obviously, it was a bad day,” Kenseth said. “We ran bad in the beginning, and then some of those guys got track position and we were buried in the back. I got loose and hit the wall a little bit, but Kyle Busch’s (race winner) right-front looked worse than mine, so I can’t believe that hurt it too bad. We just missed it today. The car was so tight in the corners that I had to slow down so much to get through that it killed our speed all day.”

Etc.: Formula One is considering a championship system where the driver with the most victories gets the title, but Kenseth thinks that would be a silly idea in NASCAR. “Everybody tries to win, but there are 43 cars and there can only be one winner,” Kenseth said. “If you want to just say there’s a winner and a loser, there’s one winner and 42 losers then. You’ve got to rank those other 42 cars. It’s a lot better to go out here and run fourth than it is to run 38th. There has to be a way to rank that, and I think NASCAR has done a great job over the years to balance the difference between consistency and winning.”

David Reutimann, No. 00 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing

This week: Reutimann is still looking for his first top-10 finish at Martinsville. In four starts at the track, his best finish is 17th. But because of how well he has run in 2009, Reutimann is convinced he has his best chance of getting that initial top-10 this weekend. “The start of the season has been really good for us,” he said. “We have good race cars, and we are seeing the results on the race track.”

Last week: Reutimann finished 12th at Bristol for his fourth top-15 finish in the first five races of the young season as he moved up one spot in the standings to 11th. “We were a little tight in the center of the turns, and I just couldn’t get on the throttle as quickly as I would have liked,” said Reutimann.

Etc.: A year ago, Reutimann began the year outside the top 35 in car owner points and spent much of the season just trying to qualify for the races. “You’re sick to your stomach every time qualifying time rolls around,” said Reutimann. “I like being on this side of the sheet (11th in the standings) a whole lot better than being on the outside looking in, so to speak. We’re making some good gains, and it’s fun to drive the cars right now.”

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing

This week: Harvick has posted four top-10 finishes in the last six races at Martinsville. His lone win at the track came in the 2006 Nationwide race. “It’s the closest track to my house (in Kernersville, N.C.), so it’s kind of my home track,” said Harvick. “DeLana’s (his wife) family and all of our friends from around there like to come to that race, so it’s one where we really want to do well.”

Last week: Harvick got caught up in an early race accident and was never able to fully recover as he ended up 30th to drop from eighth to 12th in the standings. “That was a long day,” said Harvick. “We picked up a few spots early (after starting 30th), but then we got caught up in somebody else’s wreck and that pretty much ended our day.”

Etc.: Harvick said at Martinsville “the car is a little bit of a challenge to get it to handle right. You want to get the thing as good as you can up off the corner, but you have to keep it turning through the center of the corner. It’s a fine line as far as balance.”

CUT-OFF FOR “CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP”

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing

This week: Burton has two top-six finishes in the last four races at Martinsville to bring his top-10 total to 14 in 29 starts at the track. “I seem to have a love-hate relationship with Martinsville,” said Burton, who finished third in the 2008 spring race. “We worked exceptionally hard on our short-track program and (last year) were able to apply what we learned through testing.”

Last week: Burton kept getting better as the race went along and, as a result, ended up eighth after starting 40th. As a result, he moved up two spots in the standings to 13th. Said Burton: “To leave Bristol with an eighth-place finish after our qualifying effort is a job well done. Our finish is something to be proud of.”

Etc.: Burton’s lone win at his home track came in the fall of 1997. “I was really sick when we won that race,” the South Boston, Va., native said. “I was really struggling and could hardly stand up. I had to hold off Bobby Hamilton (in a late-race duel). It was a really rewarding race because I had to work hard for it. Nothing came easy on that day.”

Brian Vickers, No. 83 Toyota, Red Bull Racing

This week: Vickers has only one top-10 finish in eight starts at Martinsville. “The short tracks have not historically been our best tracks, but we have worked really hard the whole year to improve on the short tracks,” said Vickers. “And I think we have come a long ways. The last time we were at Martinsville we had a great race and finished 11th after running in the top five for a good portion of the day.”

Last week: Tire problems and an ill-timed caution flag resulted in a 29th-place finish for Vickers at Bristol as he dropped from 11th to 14th in the standings. On lap 319, Vickers felt the right-rear tire going flat and headed immediately for the pits. But the caution flag came out just as he was beginning to enter pit road. NASCAR also ruled that he pitted too soon. “We had a better car than the finish shows,” said Vickers.

Etc.: Never before in Vickers’ Sprint Cup career has he been this high (14th) in the point standings after five races. “We’re definitely in the hunt (to earn a spot in the Chase),” said Vickers. “We’re right there. We just have to perform the way we’re capable of performing.”

Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Chevrolet, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates

This week: Montoya has not finished worse than 16th in his four starts at Martinsville. His best finish was eighth in the fall of 2007. “We’ve been real consistent there,” said Montoya. “We just need to run a little better and we can have a real good day. We are real close to having that kind of day.” Montoya has pulled to within 38 points of the top 12.

Last week: After finishing ninth for his first top-10 run of the season, Montoya said, “It’s about time. To get our first one with a Chevy is pretty exciting. I want to thank everyone at Earnhardt Ganassi. They’ve done an amazing job. This really shows where the team is going. I think there is a lot more potential there.”

Etc.: Car owner Chip Ganassi believes the pairing of Montoya and Martin Truex Jr. this year will be a huge benefit to his organization. “You can see how putting a Jimmie (Johnson) and a Jeff (Gordon) together speeds things along,” said Ganassi. “We never had that opportunity the last couple years with Juan. To have Martin there alongside is just huge. You can’t put into words or a dollar amount how valuable that is.”

A.J. Allmendinger, No. 44 Dodge, Richard Petty Motorsports

This week: Allmendinger finished 15th last fall at Martinsville for his best finish in three Sprint Cup starts at the track. For the first time this season Allmendinger has a guaranteed starting spot. “It’s a huge relief for us,” said Allmendinger. “To have to worry about qualifying each week just wears you out, but we’ve made every race and we are sitting pretty decent in the points (16th), so I’m pretty happy.”

Last week: Allmendinger finished 16th at Bristol to move up four spots in the standings, where he also is 16th. “The car was pretty good,” said Allmendinger. “I think if we could have gotten track position, we could have run up there (in the top 10). Overall, it was a good points day.”

Etc.: The team has added five races to Allmendinger’s schedule. Originally, he was going to run only the first eight races, but the team has found enough sponsorship to add Talladega, Richmond, Darlington and the Coca-Cola 600 as well as the Sprint All-Star race to his schedule. “Hopefully we can keep having the results and continue on for more,” said Allmendinger. “This gives us an additional six weeks to keep working on more sponsorship.”

Elliott Sadler, No. 19 Dodge, Richard Petty Motorsports

This week: Sadler has only three top-10 finishes in 20 starts at Martinsville. He knows he needs a good run on Sunday to stay in the thick of the fight to be in the top 12 come the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Sadler is only 54 points out of the top 12. “There are a lot of teams real close, so we need to have a good weekend,” said Sadler.

Last week: Sadler finished 20th at Bristol. “Just a tough day,” said Sadler. “We made a lot of adjustments. We just need about one or two more (pit) stops to make this Dodge a little better. Not what we wanted, but not a bad day, either.”

Etc.: Crew chief Kevin Buskirk became ill Saturday night and Robbie Loomis, executive vice president of race operations for Richard Petty Motorsports, was forced to take over the crew chief duties at Bristol. This was the first time Loomis had called the shots for a team since he worked with Jeff Gordon in 2005.

Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing

This week: Biffle has never run that well at Martinsville — he has only one top-10 finish in 12 starts at the track. But he believes his performance last October is an indication of better things to come. “We qualified well (third), led some laps (nine) and just missed a top-10 (finishing 12th),” said Biffle. “So I feel much better about going to Martinsville this weekend.”

Last week: It was another frustrating day for Biffle as he ended up 39th after being sidelined by engine problems. “I would have never thought you’d have engine problems at Bristol,” said Biffle, who dropped from 10th to 18th in the standings. “I was kind of riding around waiting to get to the end. We had a top-10 sewn up and may have even had a better car than that.”

Etc.: Biffle is recovering from a rib injury he suffered last week during a fishing trip. He slipped while attempting to jump off his boat and onto the dock. “The platform must have been wet, and when I jumped it shot my foot out from underneath me and turned me around backward and put me right on my side and on my back,” said Biffle. “Everybody’s jumped out of boat before, but I just lost my footing. I wish I had a better story, I really do.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

This week: Earnhardt has finished sixth or better in three of the last four races at Martinsville, including a second last fall. Overall, he has eight top-fives and nine top-10s in 18 starts at the track. He also led 146 laps in the spring race last year before finishing sixth.

Last week: Earnhardt finished 14th at Bristol as he moved up five spots in the standings from 24th to 19th. “We had great pit stops and we had a good competitive car — a top-10 car, for sure, and just could never get there,” said Earnhardt. “We just had terrible track position. I qualified really poorly (34th) and made some mistakes on our qualifying lap and made our qualifying effort so bad that we never had track position all day.”

Etc.: Earnhardt said he is getting tired of the criticism of crew chief Tony Eury Jr. “I’d rather be crucified than him because every time I read in the paper that people are on his case, I feel like people are sending my brother to jail for a crime I committed,” said Earnhardt. “I like racing with him. That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Chevrolet, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates

This week: Truex finished 10th last fall at Martinsville for his first top-10 finish in six starts at the track. “I would be delighted with another run like that one,” said Truex. “We struggled last week at Bristol, so we need a good run this weekend.” Truex trails 12th-place Kevin Harvick by 76 points.

Last week: After finishing a disappointing 26th at Bristol, Truex said, “It was a long day for us, but we’ve got another short track coming up next week, so we can’t dwell on this. We’ll just have to figure out where we can improve on these smaller tracks and get ready for Sunday.” Truex dropped one spot in the standings, to 20th.

Etc.: Truex said he expects to win at least one race this year and make the Chase. “Both (are) things that we should have done last year and didn’t,” he said. “I think they (Ganassi) bring a different approach than we’ve had (at DEI in 2008). I think they’re more engineer-driven.”

OTHERS

Michael Waltrip, No. 55 Toyota, Michael Waltrip Racing

This week: Waltrip has not fared well at Martinsville — he has only five top-10 finishes in 45 starts at the track. His last top-10 finish was a third back in the spring of 2000. “It takes a special talent and technique to tickle that gas pedal,” he said. “You have to be able to fly down into the corner, let off the gas and just tease the gas pedal to get going off the corner. Driving at Martinsville is controlled chaos.”

Last week: It was a long day for Waltrip as he finished 32nd at Bristol to drop from 16th to 21st in the standings. “It was just one of those days that not a lot went right,” said Waltrip, who had to go to a backup car after crashing in practice. “We made a lot of changes, but we could never get the car where we wanted.”

Etc.: Waltrip is pleased with how his organization is performing so far in 2009. “I really like the direction we continue to move in,” he said. “Both Marcos (Ambrose) and David (Reutimann) ran really well at Bristol. Our organization has really grown. I am really proud of everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing.”

Bobby Labonte, No. 96 Ford, Hall of Fame Racing

This week: Labonte has one win and 13 top-10 finishes in 32 starts at Martinsville. He admits that it has been an “up and down” season so far, the high being the fifth-place finish at Las Vegas. But that was followed by a disappointing performance in Atlanta (where he ended up 40th). Still, Labonte feels good about the long-term outlook. “I believe in my heart that we’ll be a solid contender (before the year is over),” said Labonte.

Last week: Labonte finished 22nd at Bristol. “We were just too tight in the center (of the corners) all day, and every time we tried to make it turn it would lose forward bite,” said Labonte. “We just had to live with it being tight, but we’ve been that way ever since we got here. We just never figured out how to make it turn.”

Etc.: Labonte, who didn’t have a ride for the 2009 season until mid-January, believes his new team has “gotten through the bumps and bruises with no major mistakes, and that’s definitely a good thing. Right now we need to focus on building upon the foundation we set in Vegas.”

Marcos Ambrose, No. 47 Toyota, JTG-Daugherty Racing

This week: Ambrose will be making his first start at Martinsville this weekend. Ambrose is still flying high after his impressive performance in his first race at Bristol last week. “It just feels great to be up there racing with those (top) guys, passing Jeff Gordon,” said Ambrose. “I mean, he’s just a hero of mine. I’ve just watched him forever and just admired him so much. We’re finally hitting our form and showing everybody what we got.”

Last week: Despite major engine problems, Ambrose finished 10th in his first Sprint Cup start at Bristol as he jumped from 28th to 24th in the standings. For much of the first half of the race, Ambrose ran in the top five. But with 158 laps to go in the 500-lap event, Ambrose notified the team he was down at least one cylinder. Still, he was able to earn his first top-10 finish of the season.

Etc.: Ambrose was quick to thank Tad and Jodi Geschickter (part owners of the team) and crew chief Frank Kerr for saving his career. “If it wasn’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be standing here right now,” he said. Ambrose began his racing career in Australia. He won two consecutive Australian V8 Supercar titles in 2003-04.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing

This week: Newman has six top-10 finishes in 14 starts at Martinsville, including five top-fives. His best finish is a second in the fall of 2007. “Hopefully we can have the same kind of weekend we had at Bristol,” said Newman. “We were strong off the truck on Friday and continued to make the car go faster and faster. We took advantage of what we had, and that’s exactly what we needed to do.”

Last week: Newman was all smiles after finishing seventh at Bristol for his first top-10 finish with his new team. “This is huge for team morale,” said Newman, who jumped from 32nd to 27th in the standings. “We got the monkey off our back. We knew we were capable of this type of performance going into Daytona but ran into a string of bad luck.”

Etc.: Car owner Tony Stewart said he was happy for Newman’s team. “It’s hard to not let your morale get beat up having the kind of bad luck they’ve had,” Stewart said. “It’s not because they haven’t been running good. It’s because they’ve had terrible luck. It was good to see them get a good run like they deserved.”

Mark Martin, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

This week: Martin has two wins and 21 top-10 finishes in 42 starts at Martinsville. But Martin admits that “Martinsville is certainly not my favorite track. I have had a good bit of success there, but it’s a very frustrating and challenging little race track. It can be brutal physically as well as hardware-wise.”

Last week: After winning his second consecutive pole position, Martin was able to run the full distance for the first time this season as he finished sixth at Bristol to move up three spots in the standings to 31st. Martin was beset by two engine failures and a flat tire in three of the first four races. “It is just great for this team to get some forward momentum,” said Martin. “On the long runs today, that car was on fire.”

Etc.: Car owner Rick Hendrick won his first Cup race at Martinsville 25 years ago when Geoff Bodine drove the No. 5 Chevrolet to victory. “Just to be in the No. 5 car for the 25th anniversary means a lot to me,” said Martin, “because I was around to see it (the Bodine win) and a lot of folks who follow the sport weren’t there then. Wouldn’t it be cool to celebrate the anniversary with a win in the 5 car this weekend?”